Four-Year Colleges - 2010: More Than 2,500 Colleges in the United States, Canada, and Abroad (Peterson's Four Year Colleges) [ペーパーバック]

Peterson's yearly overview of "Four Year Colleges" has been one of the standard bearers in the industry for many years. I used to think of it as the "Big Mac" of college-search books, for one because it was so darn huge. Imagine my surprise this year when I saw the new edition in a slimmed down version.

"Peterson's Four Year Colleges - 2010 Edition" (1,820 pages, which is about 1,000 pages less than last year's edition) is still basically 2 books in 1. The first 300 pages or so (called "Colleges At a Glance") provide the 'hard cold facts', presenting a very short summary of about 2,500 four year colleges around the US. Compared to last year, when colleges got about half a page description, it's now down to a mere paragraph, I'm not kidding. Ohio State University gets a total of 4 lines, just to give an idea. Not sure how in the book's introduction they dare write that "Colleges at a Glance provide a complete picture of need-to-know information about accredited four year colleges". Really? Helpful is that the colleges are lumped state-by-state, because, let's face it, most college students remain in their home state.

The second part of the book is a more in-depth (two pages) profile of about 600 colleges (down from about 1,000 last year). It is important to understand that those in-depth profiles are NOT written up by the book's editors, but instead by the colleges themselves (and the colleges are paying for this placement--probably why the number of profiles have decreased this year). Thus, a 2 page profile on GW and American, but not on Georgetown. The third and last part of the book is about 200 pages of various "Indexes", mostly majors (which is VERY helpful if you are into a specific area of interest--as an example, you can major in "Textile Science" in only 2 colleges in the country), as well as by entrance difficulty and cost ranges.

Ultimately, this could be a book to get when your son or daughter is at the very beginning of their college search and is simply looking to get some basic information. But even on that level, I am not convinced this is the right place to start, or it certainly shouldn't be the only one. The one-paragraph summary in the "Colleges at a Glance" section is simply insufficient in my opinion. Other books to consult are the the 2010 edition of "Complete Book of Colleges 2010 Edition" by the Princeton Review (already available) and "Ultimate College Guide" by US News and World Report (the 2010 edition will be out in a few months, check the 2009 edition in the meantime). After compiling some basic information, there are other resources that should be checked out, such as the Princeton Reviews 2010 edition of "The Best 371 Colleges" (already out).

As an individual who works to prepare students for College I found this book to be extremely helpful. The list of colleges and universities far exceeds any other book out on the market today and the information is quite extensive. This book gives me information about enrollment numbers, academic programs, how selective the school is and deadlines. This book is really a must have for anyone trying to find which college is the right fit for their upcoming college student. There is also information about admissions testing, financial aid and specialized colleges. The feature I LOVED the most was the schools that had descriptions written by their admissions staff - it was like getting the information directly from the school. The detail, the number of schools and it's organization really makes this book far superior to anything else that I have seen in bookstores.